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The Three Secret Cities (locations)
The Three Secret Cities are a trio of ancient cities which are crucial components in the Trial of the Cities. History Early History Though unconfirmed, the Three Secret Cities of Thule, Ra and Atlas were likely built by the Super-Ancient Beings rather than humans, since they included it in their fourth trial, the Trial of the Cities. Presumably these cities were occupied by the Super-Ancients as homes during their reign of the Earth. When the Super-Ancients began creating a series of trials for a later race of sentient people, they decided to set make a vital component of one of them their Three Cities. Setting a mysterious blue gem deep with each city's vault, the Super-Ancients designed the Trial of the Cities so that the gems would need to be collected and added to the Three Immortal Weapons of a sword, helmet and mace in order to empower them for the trial's final ceremony. To make the Trial of the Cities more of a challenge, the Super-Ancients also created sets of bronze and silver guardians to act as obstacles, which were left to rest in silver coffins set along the Great Avenues into the Cities. The Ancients also linked the altar at Thule, which was set to be the city that initiated the trial and the City's defending guardians, with Ra and Atlas so that they would activate their defences at the same time, therefore making it so that whoever undertook the trial required companions at all the other Cities. Eventually, the Super-Ancients would pass on some of their knowledge to the group of humans that would become known as the Four Legendary Kingdoms; among the things they shared were the locations of Thule, Ra and Atlas, and their importance in the fourth trial for humanity. The Four Kingdoms assigned three men to watch over each City, who would come to be called the Trismagi. When one of the Trismagi neared the end of their life or service, the Four Kingdoms would assign someone to take their place watching over the Cities to ensure they were not disturbed before the trial. Though the Four Kingdoms vowed to maintain the necessary knowledge for the Trial, they knew most of the relevant information for the final two trials would be revealed to the King of Kings who received the Mysteries at the conclusion of the Third Trial, and that the knowledge of the Mysteries were also contained within the Cities' vaults. Over the millennia, even as each of the Three Secret Cities remained hidden from the greater human population, through various myths they became infamous, albeit with their locations mis-identified and their names changed (such as Ra, which became known to the Spaniards as El-Dorado, and Atlas, which was called Atlantis in subsequent legends after it's flooding), and so scholars, thieves and fortune-hunters spent lifetimes trying to locate even one of the Cities. During her reign, Queen Elizabeth I assigned Sir Francis Drake the secret mission of seeking out the Three Secret Cities and confirming their locations. Drake succeeded, but shortly after leaving Ra he fell deathly ill, and so sent his Queen a letter to confirm he had succeeded in his mission and that the coordinates of the Cities would be buried with him at sea. By the early 21st century, the locations of the Cities were known to few other than their present Trismagi guardians (Sir Bjorn, Sir Inigo Defenestra and Lord Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster) and a handful of people within the Four Kingdoms. The Four Legendary Kingdoms During the fourth Great Games of the Hydra that precluded the completion of the Third Trial, Cardinal Ricardo Mendoza noted to Jack West Jr the importance of the Three Secret Cities to the remaining trials. When the Games concluded with the upheaval to the Four Kingdoms, Jack prevented King Orlando Compton-Jones from receiving the Mysteries, and King Anthony "Hades" DeSaxe noted that meant that all of the ancient knowledge regarding the remaining trials would have to be re-found. As the various groups fled the Underworld, Hades discovered that Orlando and Mendoza had survived, realising that they would soon be heading for the Cities to prepare for the next trial. The Three Secret Cities A few days after the conclusion of the Third Trial, the mission to begin the Trial of the Cities began in earnest. Orlando quickly obtained the Helmet from Hades's penthouse to go with the Sword he already possessed, and after returning to the Hall of Royal Records at St. Michael's Mount, set out to the Cities while also tasking Sunil Malik with finding the long-lost Mace. However, Jack and Lily West managed to view a full rubbing copy of the tablet of the Altar of the Cosmos, discovering that activating the defences at Thule would activate the defences of all of the Cities. As Orlando was unaware of this and in a hurry to complete the trial, Jack's team set about trying to locate all of the Cities and the "Trident" so that they could help to ensure the Trial of the Cities wasn't failed. Indeed, unaware of the mistake he was making, upon his arrival at Thule, Orlando prematurely initiated the trial and left Mendoza and his Swiss Guards to empower the Sword. However, the uninformed Cardinal and his men soon found themselves caught between the Bronze Guardians as they slowly marched down to the cupola with the Silver Guardians that barred their way to the vault. Ignorant of his error, Orlando sent Chloe Carnarvon with the Helmet to Ra, where she and her Brazilian special forces troops were caught in a similar predicament to Mendoza's. After Jack's team retrieved the locations of the Cities from Sir Francis Drake's coffin and recovered the Mace from Poseidon's tomb, they made their way to the Cities, with Stretch and Pooh Bear headed to Thule, Iolanthe Compton-Jones, Nobody and Mae Merriweather continuing on to Ra and Jack and Aloysius Knight made their way to Atlas. With Sphinx threatening Lily's life, Jack agreed to empower the Mace and return it to the Trismagi. As each group from Jack's team came up against the Guardians, Jack realised the Weapons were the key to getting past them, and so his people were able to do what Orlando's people had failed to do and reach the inner vaults of the Three Cities. However, as soon as the blue gems were added to the Weapons, Sphinx, Mendoza and Chloe each forced Jack's people to hand over the Weapons, wherein they made their way to the Altar of the Cosmos to fulfill the Trial of the Cities. Purpose . The Three Cities Thule . Ra . Atlas . Trivia . Category:Locations Category:The Three Secret Cities